Recovery of tobacco from defective cigarettes



March 1961 B. R. MORPHET ET AL 2,976,872

RECOVERY OF TOBACCO FROM DEFECTIVE CIGARETTES Filed May 26, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG] March 1961 B. R. MORPHET ET AL 2,976,872

RECOVERY OF TOBACCO FROM DEFECTIVE CIGARETTES 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 26. 1959 March 28, 1961 MORPHET ET AL 2,976,872

RECOVERY OF TOBACCO FROM DEFECTIVE CIGARETTES Filed May 26. 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 RECOVERY OF TOBACCO FROM'DEFECTIVE CIGARETTES Bentham Ravenscroft Morphetand John Henry Mungo, London, England, assignors to British-American Tobacco Company Limited, London, England This invention concerns improvements relating to the recovery of tobacco from defective cigarettes. In the large-scale manufacture of cigarettes, a certain proportion has to be rejected on inspection, for one reason or another. Although this proportion is small, the value of the tobacco makes'it'highlyimportant that the tobacco should be recovered for re-use. In the case of ordinary cigarettes without tips, this is a simple matter and involves no more than feeding the rejected cigarettes to a ripping machine which slits the paper wrapping longitudinally, so that the tobacco can be freed from it and recovered. In the case of cigarettes with filter or like tips, however, recovery of the tobacco involves considerable difliculty because the presence of the tips precludes simple feeding of the rejected cigarettes to a ripping machine. Variousproposals have been made for the removal of the tips before the cigarettes are supplied to the said machine, but none has proved entirely satisfactory. For instance, removal of the tips by cutting apparatus encounters the diffioulty that, because clearance must be allowed for the feeding of the tipped cigarettes through a hopper, the cutting apparatus cannot be registered with certainty with the junction of the filter tip and the cigarette rod, thus giving rise to the tendency of such cutting apparatus to cut into the filter tip or else the cigarette rod. The result is that either filter material is deposited with the tobacco product or tobacco is deposited with the reject filter material. The present invention seeks to provide simple but effective apparatus, for removing the tips from rejected cigarettes, which avoids difficulties such as have been referred to above.

According to the invention, apparatus for removing tips from cigarettes comprises a rotatable drum with cigarettereceiving grooves provided in its cylindrical surface parellel to its axis and a stationary breaker member disposed closely adjacent to one end face of the drum, the grooves being of such length that cigarettes held therein project freely from the grooves at the said end face by substantially the length of the tips, which are carried into engagement with and sheared off by the breaker member 1 on rotation of the drum. For feeding the cigarettes automatically to the grooves in the drum, use is preferably made of a hopper disposed directly above the drum.

One form of such apparatus in accordance with the invention will now be more fully described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus,

Figure 2 is a plan view thereof to a larger scale,

Figure 3 is a detail front elevation of the drum and,

breaking means, also to a larger scale, and

States Patent Figure 4 is a vertical section on theline IV--IV in adjacent side 3iv sloping and radial .with respect to the "ice drumand the other adjacent side 4 substantially vertical and substantially radial with respect to the drum. The effective depth d (Figure 2) of the hopper from front to back is equal to the overall length of the cigarettes to be dealt with. If cigarettes of different lengths have to be catered for, the back wall 5 of the hopper or, as shown in Figure 2, a false inner wall 6 may be arranged to be adjustable towards and away from'the front wall 7 to suit the length of the cigarettes to be run through. The adjustment may be effected by means of bolts 8 and spacers 9. The cigarettes 10 lie in the direction from front to rear of the hopper 1 and drum 2 with the tipped ends towards the front, that is facing the operator. The,

front wall 7 of the hopper may be made of transparent material and may be hinged at 7a (Figures 1 and 4) along a lower edge so thatit can be swung down to enable cigarettes to be fed into the hopper by the operator. It may be held by magnetic catches 11.

The rear of the drum 2 runs against the rear wall 5 of the hopper 1. The length of the drum2, parallel to its axis, projecting forwardly beyond the wall 6 is equal to the length of the. cigarette .I'Od,'th8t is the tobaccofilled portion of the cigarette, so that the join between the rod and tip, usually enclosed by a cork or paper end piece, is flush with the front edge 12 of the drum. Tips of different lengths can be catered for by the use of a removable or interchangeable spacer 13 secured by screws 14 to the inside face of the front wall 7 of the hopper in the vicinity of the drum 2.

The drum 2 has a number, for example twelve, of grooves 15 with half-round bottoms and of a depth slightly less than the diameter of a cigarette 10 (Figure 3). The bottom of the hopper 1 is closed by an arc of the drum 2 (sub-tending, say, eight cigarettes 10 at the said bottom of the hopper). As the drum rotates, each groove 15 receives a cigarette and carries it away under the vertical wall 4 of the hopper or of a guide therein. A refuser roller 16 arranged above the drum 2 and rotating in the same sense prevents any cigarettes other than those in the grooves 15 from being carried along. Beyond the refuser roller 16, the cigarettes 10 are retained in the grooves 15 by the arcuate guiding edges 17 of retaining plates 18. Extending across a shallow chord of the circumference of the drum 2 in front of the lower part of the drum on the side remote from the sloping hopper wall 3 is a fixed wedge-shaped breaker block 19. Suitably, this way be made of hard wood such as lignuin vitae, By the rotation of the drum 2 the tips, projecting from the ends of the grooves 15, of the cigarettes 10 in the said grooves are carried successively against the oblique surface 20 (Figure 3) of the block 19 and are shearedoff from the cigarettes at the aforesaid join. Contact with the aforesaid edges 17 of the part of the cylindrical surface of each cigarette protruding slightly from the groove 15 prevents the cigarette from spinning about its axis during the shearing operation. I

p The tips are sheared ofi complete with the cork or paper end piece, but without any of the tobacco. The detached tips fall into a discharge chute 21 extending away from underneath the drum 2. Guided by continuations of the arcuate edges 17, the cigarette rods are carried along by the drum 2 through a further arc and are released near the lowest point of the drum circumference to fall into a second,separate, chute, 22, release being assisted by a stripping finger 23 projecting obliquely into a circumferential groove 24 in the drum. From the chute 22, the cigarettes will be fed to a rippingmachine which can deal with them effectively even if each rod has a smallstrip of the end-piece material around its end.

25 from a fractional horse-powerrnotor 26 mounted be- 1 hind the hopper 1, the refuser roller 16'being driven from.

As illustrated, the drum 2 is driven through gearing the drum shaft 27 through chain gearing 28. The drum and the drive may be mounted on a common cast bronze frame 29 which may also form a stand. Alternatively the apparatus may be designed to be mounted on a table.

As shown in Figure 3, aisrnall adjustable knife 39 is provided close to the edge 12 of the drum 2 between the refuser roller 16 and the breaking member 19. This knife 30 serves only to prepare the cigarettes for the shearing operation by cutting through a small part of the wrapping.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for removing tips from cigarettes, comprising a rotatable drum with cigarette-receiving grooves provided in its cylindrical surface extending parallel to its axis and a stationary breaker member disposed in close proximity to but beyond one end face of said drum, the grooves being shorter than the cigarettes by substantially the length of the tips thereof so that cigarettes held therein project freely from the grooves at the said end face by substantially the length of the tips, which are carried into striking engagement with and sheared off by the breaker member on rotation of the drum.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a hopper is disposed directly above the drum so that the cigarettes are fed automatically to the grooves in the drum.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a refuser 4 roller is disposed adjacent to the drum in such a position as to prevent cigarettes, other than those which have entered the grooves, from being carried along to the breaker member.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a small knife is provided adjacent to the edge of the said end face of the drum and in advance of the breaker member.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the drum is provided with a circumferential groove and a stripping finger is arranged to project into the said groove for assisting release of the cigarettes from the cigarette-receiving grooves after the shearing operation.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein a removable spacer is provided inside the front wall of the hopper in the vicinity of the drum.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the hopper is made adjustable at its rear wall to suit cigarettes of different lengths.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,788,852 Sharpe Apr. 16, 1957 2,815,029 Exner Dec. 3, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 29,814 Switzerland Nov. 19, 1910 

